Political Notebook: Block fumbles pension question

Democratic Assemblyman Marty Block, a candidate for state Senate, was asked a simple question.

He gave the wrong answer.

At a recent community coffee, Block opened the discussion by laying out his biography: More than 26 years as a dean, director and professor at San Diego State University. Prior to being elected to the state assembly, Block also served as president of the San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees and president of the San Diego County Board of Education.

In the question and answer portion of the coffee, Block was asked whether he receives a taxpayer-funded pension.

“No,” he said in an audio recording of the event. “The Legislature, a lot of people think legislators get big pensions, and you know actually members of Congress do get pretty reasonably good pensions. In Sacramento, when they passed term limits by the voters many years ago, there was also a provision that legislators do not get pensions. So nobody gets pensions in the Legislature in Sacramento. That always surprises people. I sometimes walk into a group and say, ‘You know, I’ll give you my pension.’ But there is no pension ...”

State lawmakers may no longer get pensions. But Block does.

Block began receiving his pension on Dec. 30, 2005. His total gross benefit amount is $4,093.56 a month, or about $49,000 per year, according to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. By age 85, Block will have earned more than $1.47 million in pension payments, excluding other post-employment benefits such as health care. His assembly salary is $95,291 plus per diems estimated at $20,000.

Asked to explain the discrepancy, Block’s campaign spokesman said he often gets questions about legislative pensions.

“His standard response is similar to the one on the transcript you provided,” Ralph Dimarucut said. “When asked about pensions at his legislative coffee responding to a series of questions about the Legislature and legislative business, he interpreted that to be about his legislative pension — of which there is none.”

Former Republican Assemblyman George Plescia, who is challenging Block in the high-stakes Senate race, said his opponent was “flat-out dishonest” with his audience.

Block did not officially weigh in on the successful June ballot initiative in San Diego that eliminates guaranteed pensions for most new hires, including firefighters, and gives them a 401(k)-style plan instead. Block and Democrats later supported a less sweeping version of Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to overhaul the state pension system.

“What I got was the most that could be gotten,” Brown told reporters. “Is it enough? No.”

At the coffee, Block cast the state-approved version as less “severe” than San Diego’s Proposition B. He added that public-employee pensions have been made a “scapegoat for a lot of what’s wrong with our economy.”

“I don’t think state workers’ pensions are the cause of our problems in California,” Block said, acknowledging there are abuses of the pension system and those need to be stopped. “And (the state’s) pension reform stops them.”

Dimarucut said Block begins most of his presentations talking about his more than 26-year career at San Diego State University, where pensions are provided to all full-time employees who serve more than five years. He said Block was proud of his service and that his brochures tout him as being a recipient of a distinguished service award upon retirement. He added Block emailed details about his pension to U-T San Diego during his first term.